Deby Fredericks's Blog, page 3

Bookmarks

Over the weekend I did one of those little chores we writers have to do from time to time. I went through all the bookmarks in my browser that have to do with short story submissions. I made a sub-folder for them, and checked them one by one. Then I transferred the good ones into the sub folder. And I alphabetized them, just for kicks.

What was I looking for? Publications that I’ve heard are defunct, especially magazines. Magazines come and go quite often. Also publishers with specific submission windows that are long past. And ones that hadn’t updated their website in over a year. That’s a sign they are struggling or just haven’t admitted they’re going to close yet.

One sad thing I had to look for was a group of magazines like Fantasy and Science Fiction and Analog, which are highly esteemed but were recently purchased by a corporation that makes strange and excessive rights demands. Those bookmarks had to go.

Of course, I also did a fresh search for magazine markets. I’ve been picking up leads from Bluesky and Jason Stanford’s newsletter, Genre Grapevine. I checked those out and added them if they seemed like a possible good fit.

I hope this will help me tackle one of my bad habits, which is to write short stories and then never submit them anywhere. On those days when I’m struggling to put down new words, I can open my file cabinet and look for stories that need to be submitted.

Thrilling, right?

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Bluesky, Facebook or Pinterest.

Woman at Work, August 2025

What’s Happening? Summer is sizzling away here in Washington State. I’m getting a nice harvest of green beans and cucumbers. Tomatoes will be ripening soon. My second favorite time of year!

What I’m Working On. Just yesterday, I wrote a quick fantasy short story and submitted it for an anthology. But my main focus still is on The Warlock’s Army. Another main character is going to arrive soon. That will keep my muse occupied for the rest of the summer break.

What’s Next? “Project X” is beginning to appear on my distant horizon. It will be a twofer type of book, two short stories in one volume. I haven’t decided about a title yet, though. More on that as it develops.

Where I’ll be. It’s just a couple of weeks until Worldcon in Seattle. I did manage to wangle one appearance, running a meet-up for Dragon Age fans. I’m also going to be volunteering in their Green Room. In addition, I have a few friends who are coming to attend, and we hope to get together at some point during the weekend.

Fun and Games. I’m currently playing Animal Crossing and Dragon Age: Veilguard. Also doing jigsaw puzzles between books. As for current reads, I just finished Iron Widow, by Xiran Jay Zhao. That book is pretty dark, so my next read will be Starter Villain, by John Scalzi.

Enjoy the summer weather, everyone!

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Bluesky, Facebook or Pinterest.

Smashwords Sale Ends Soon!

We’re coming to the end of July, which means the Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale will soon be over. But for a couple more days you still can grab my e-books for 25% off. My catalog is here, if you’re interested.

If you like high fantasy with a social conscience, think about my novella series, Minstrels of Skaythe.

If you prefer short story collections, check out Aunt Ursula’s Atlas or Aunt Anne’s Archive.

For younger readers, there’s the Cleodora duology (Acorn Canyon and Willow Lake), or my dragon family drama, Masters of Air and Fire.

For stand-alone novellas, I offer the eerie urbanish fantasy, The Gellboar, or swords and sorcery in The Weight of Their Souls.

All of them are listed together in my catalog, so I do hope you’ll take a look. And remember, everything is 25% off until July 31st!

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Bluesky, Facebook or Pinterest.

The Dragon Days of Summer

This is a fun repeat of a post from way back in August of 2016. Enjoy!

Here we are in what are traditionally called the “dog days of summer.” From this we all imagine sweltering weather with both people and dogs flopped in the shade.

The phrase comes to us from Roman times, when the bright star Sirius rose along with the sun. Sirius was part of the constellation Canis Major and was known as the Dog Star. Thus the rising of Sirius became associated with the hottest days of the summer in late July and early August.

So the Dog Days and their constellation made me think about the constellation Draco. If we had “dragon days,” what would they be?

1) Ironically, this really sounds like a sales event to me. Can’t you just see some auto showroom decked out for a Dragon Days Clearance Sale?

2) Draco is a fixed constellation in the northern sky. It doesn’t rise or set the way Canis Major does, so you couldn’t base anything on that. However, there is a meteor shower that appears to originate with Draco. Dragon Days could be held to honor the Draconid meteor shower, in early to mid-October.

3) Chinese New Year, a.k.a. the Lunar New Year, occurs in late January. Certainly there could be a Dragon Days associated with this world-wide festival.

4) An international competition of fire dancers or pyrotechnicians could be designated as Dragon Days.

5) In a fantasy setting, where dragons were real, Dragon Days might be the season when their eggs hatch. People might offer food for the hungry babies in hopes of keeping them from raiding family herds.

Well, what do you think? What should Dragon Days be about?

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Bluesky, Facebook or Pinterest.

Witches and Warlocks, Oh My!

Writing on The Warlock’s Army continues to go well. I’m over 25,000 words, working on chapter five. A lot of things are still developing so it’s looking more like a novel than a novella. We shall see.

On the boys’ side, Cassander and Aysli are scheming to get information about their sisters. There’s a boat race coming up. Aysli hopes to use their sailing practice as an excuse to get off their island and ask some questions around the lake. Their father, Revel Breed, is excited about the race and trying to take over the project.

Meanwhile, Cassander by default is in charge of training his younger brothers. He’s decided to encourage teamwork instead of all fighting against each other, so he put them in teams and challenged them to get a pine cone from the top of a tree. But one of them got scared and Cassander did a heroic rescue!

The girls don’t have as much to do in this stage of the book. However, Jeniana discovered a benison — a magical plant that gives witches and warlocks their abilities. She’s trying to decide whether to keep it for herself or share it. She also realizes that she wasn’t taught how to use a benison, and she’s smart enough not to rush into anything.

The main thing I’m still pondering is the kids’ moms, some of whom are also witches. Breed managed to keep any of them from putting the pieces together. That is very likely to change and things will get exciting!

As typical for me, I’ll write a scene and then have to stop and think what happens next. This is kind of weird, since I usually run my life by to-do lists. So far, though, words are continuing to flow when I sit down to work. I just have to trust my muse.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Bluesky, Facebook or Pinterest.

Witch Hat Atelier

This is a manga series I’ve been enjoying. I started reading it intermittently, but now that I realize my public library has the whole series, I’m all in. It seems at least one other person is doing the same thing, so I have to wait at times.

The main character is Coco, a young girl who is fascinated by magic. Evil witches give her a book of forbidden magic, and she tries it out herself. The result is a tragic accident. By law, the witches of this world should erase her memory of magic. But a teacher named Qifrey witnesses the accident and takes Coco as a student in his atelier (fancy word for a school).

The series is a lot like Harry Potter, with a youngster being thrust into an amazing world where they don’t know any of the rules. There’s a mean professor and a rude upperclassman. Yet Witch Hat Atelier expands on the magical-school trope and makes it their own. Qifrey is a kind and supportive teacher, and it turns out he specializes in teaching the misfits of the magical world. All the girls have challenges, but they learn to work together and help each other grow.

One of the most remarkable things is the art style, which is totally manga with the big eyes and fluffy dresses of the girls. But the author/illustrator, Kamome Shirahara, never lets it become saccharine. There’s depth to the plot as well, since it turns out Qifrey has a hidden motive for taking Coco into his school. It’s definitely a “girl manga” and meant for a tween audience. Don’t let that stop you from enjoying some cozy magical misadventures.

Witch Hat Atelier is highly recommended.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Bluesky, Facebook or Pinterest.

Next Month

WorldCon is coming to Seattle next month. My husband and I are going. It’s a full days’ drive for us, but worth it. We go to a couple of SF conventions in our region each year but this will give us a chance to see authors from all over the world that we usually miss out on. We’re looking forward to it!

Earlier in the month I mentioned that I hoped to take part in programming. I wasn’t accepted to do any panels, but I did get permission to lead a meet-up for friends of the Dragon Age series. That will be fun. I also got approved to volunteer in the Green Room.

Currently I’m going over WorldCon’s schedule, which was posted on Sunday. I’m looking for times in between panels to do my volunteering. There’s a friend I’d like to meet for coffee at some point, and since it’s Seattle we might even sneak out to see a couple of the sights. The schedule is pretty incredible, and I’m not spotting too many dead zones! But it’s a long convention and I’m sure I’ll fit it all together.

Something for me to look forward to, anyhow.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Bluesky, Facebook or Pinterest.

Meandering

Young writers are always given advice that I think is kind of wrong. You know the kind of advice I mean. Plot beats, character types and arbitrary complications. The plot has to be propelled like a Hollywood movie.

This is something I’ve been resisting lately. You know I’m such a rebel. I’m building worlds without kings and armies. Resources are shared, not hoarded. Women can hold leadership without it being a big hairy deal.

So maybe it isn’t a surprise that my plots are different, too. No high-speed rockets here. I meander between characters and leave space for the reader to think. In some ways, we can tell the story we want to tell, but the reader might read things into it we have no knowledge of and can’t predict. Call me delusional, but I think writers can trust the readers figure out what’s going on and what it might mean.

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” (This quote is often attributed to Ghandi but it actually originated with a teacher, Arleen Lorrance.) Writers and other artists have the unique opportunity to do just that. The USA is a mess right now, in so many ways. Literally, legally, emotionally, we are all struggling. But I, as a writer, can identify things that could be done differently, and I can write about those things in the framework of a story. I’m pretty obscure, but you don’t know who will pick up your book. So maybe I can introduce ideas (the way Lorrance did) that eventually filter through and become part of people’s thinking.

At least, that’s my hope in being such a rebel and writing about worlds without capitalism or patriarchy. Eventually, I hope, you’ll all meander along with me in The Warlock’s Army.

Hey, I’m a fantasy writer. Let me dream.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Bluesky, Facebook or Pinterest.

The Warlock’s Army

That’s the tentative title of my latest masterpiece. I’ve settled into my summer routines and the work is going well. The setting is a fun one, a large lake with giant crawdads living in the depths. The characters are developing, and the plot is forking off in all sorts of neat ways.

Like a lot of my stories, the focus here is on family. It’s a big family, arbitrarily divided by its patriarch, the warlock Revel Breed. He kept all the boys to train them as fighters, but sent all the girls away to live with adopted families. Breed is an outsized figure, wealthy and with magical powers. With his wealth and reputation, he controls Revelary Lake and the small towns around it. Everyone, from the town elders to the youngest child, is terrified of his moods. Breed can be incredibly generous, or paranoid, or caught in a trance. Creating this character without making him a cartoonish figure is one of my challenges for this book.

The other challenge is with the girls Breed gave away. Witches and warlocks are visibly different from other people. Although Breed persuaded different families to take the girls in, not all of them are open to this witchery thing. Some view their witch daughters as valued assets, while others try to make the girls suppress their magic. Yet each set of parents is doing their best to be a good parent.

On the boys’ side of things, the oldest son struggles with his identity, too. With a dominating and mercurial father, he’s the one the younger boys look to as their leader. Breed considered the girls so unimportant that he never told his sons that they had sisters. When they find out, they are driven to locate the girls — but without angering their mercurial father.

There are many miles to go, or perhaps I should say, many pages to write. But it should be an interesting voyage around Revelary Lake!

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Bluesky, Facebook or Pinterest.

The Witch Roads

I’m back from Queen Titania’s Court! It’s always such a fun ride, and for those who took part, I can’t thank you enough. Now I’m back to my usual blog routine, which includes reviewing books I enjoyed. In this case, It’s Kate Elliott’s The Witch Roads.

Elliott is known for star-spanning epics, but in recent years she’s turned to fantasy. Socially subversive fantasy, at that. One of her novellas featured labor organizing (The Keeper’s Six), while another took on the concept of monarchy solving anyone’s problems (The Servant Mage). There’s always deep world building and lore, but with a quirky bit of humor. In The Servant Mage, demons are infiltrating the human world, but cows have supernatural power against them. So whenever a portal is identified, the people immediately put a cow pasture around it, even in the midst of a city.

The Witch Roads introduces us to a complicated world, clearly based in Chinese history. The Tranquil Empire is very stratified, with elaborate court rituals governing all aspects of every person’s life. There is no tolerance for difference or dissent. You either submit or die. Yet, this society itself is riven and divided by a mysterious and terrible substance that manifests as Pall and Spore. Even the slightest contact means instant corruption into horribly mutated forms. Whole areas are blanketed in the poisonous white mist, and everyone has to be on guard against Spore trying to spread the corruption. The Tranquil Empire is only able to flourish on higher ground between rivers of Pall.

The witch roads of the title are magical pathways, allegedly made with the bones of priests, where it is safe to travel — if you’re careful. This is all revealed through the eyes of Elen, a courier who is authorized to carry messages across the dangerous ground between outposts. She has a cheerful disposition, which the stricter folk interpret as being overly bold and insolent. Elen also has some special attributes, in the form of a mysterious “viper” that lives inside her. The viper can detect and destroy Spore, yet if anyone finds out about it, she would be executed.

In Elen we see an ordinary person trying to get through life in the stifling hierarchy. All she wants is to live peacefully and protect her sole remaining family, her nephew Kem. Kem is approaching a ceremony where he must “declare” his intended future profession and he doesn’t know what he wants. Or, he knows but he’s afraid to tell Elen. With Kem is where we get into the social subversion of The Witch Roads; Kem is a trans character who legally declared to change his gender from female to male. Then someone shows up claiming to be his father, and refusing to recognize Kem’s transition and accusing Elen of murder.

But a few other people show up before then. There’s a mysterious Haunt, dwelling in the Spires, who tries to convince Elen to let it possess Kem, “just for a while.” And there’s a powerful prince, Gevulin, who turns up with a huge retinue and a mission that overrides everything else. Elen is spared the executioner’s sword because she knows the area and can guide Gevulin’s party around a landslide that blocks the witch road. And Kem is spared being dragged off by his father to be a princess, when he leaps out and declares to join Gevulin’s faction of Wardens who safeguard against Spawn. And the Haunt is still at the Spires, waiting for the curious and unwary to venture near.

Elliott does a fine job of drawing out Elen’s darker past, allowing the characters to expand while showing how carefully they all must navigate all the rituals that make up life in the Tranquil Empire. It’s a rich tapestry of character and culture, highly recommended for readers who can enjoy a complicated and nuanced tale.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Bluesky, Facebook or Pinterest.