Ever Bethany

It is a good thing I decided to focus on poetry as well as novel-writing, and forget word-count, because this novel is apparently not one to be rushed.

What is it about gaslamp debutante secret order fantasy novels that needs to be deliberated, I wonder?



If you want to glance at today's poem it is over at my aptly spider's web themed poetry blog, since it collects much dust most of the time, gossamer_spun 
Today I wrote Days of the Reaper, you can add the journal if you want to look at the poems I'll be working on this month (haha) and you are most welcome to give critique.

Lots of the poems up there are f-locked, so...if you add me I'll add you back so you can see them.

This is the sequel to Thirteen Orphans, Jane Lindskold's fantasy where magic of ancient China has been coded into mahjong for the heirs of the Thirteen Orphans: powerful incarnations of the zodiac plus the emperor they served.

The fresh clothing of magic and the interesting background of the characters is really well served by Lindskold's ability to evoke images without bogging down into imagery. The Asian culture gives real color, and depth, too. The weak point in these books has been (to my eye) the rather wooden information-through-dialogue points. When one person shares knowledge, backstory there is no problem. When more than one person is talking about what they're doing, though, it is not fluid.

This bugs me, but not enough to pull me out of the story much.

I recommend this series, and may have to go looking for her other series' to last me until the next comes out...



Random Unfinished Short Opening:

SeBria was sitting on her duffel, looking about like every other cheap commuter in the station when o,Dickon came to pick her up. She swung up and grabbed her bag in a motion fluid enough for a wandswoman, but she was lanky and sat immodestly—he really didn't think he was going to like her kata. Didn't matter though; this was a favor to his sensei.

 

( Read (a smidge) more... )


...this story is one of the ones where I've used odd bits of Japanese culture/language to create something completely different. In this case, the overall concept of martial art and some bits of honor-language. I keep messing with this in short stories: hopefully someday I'll have a powerful enough idea to bring into a novel.

Since all my short stories still sound like Exercises in Fiction.

Today I:
~ ordered about 15 books from the library on forests, castles, and libraries
~ went over listings of agents AGAIN but focusing on MG representing ones
~ typed in what I wrote yesterday as a start to Librarian Glamour

Which two are related to each other? Cyber-cookie if you guess!


What I have for an opening to Charming:

It was still summer, but Blynne and the other Archive girls were back at school. In the Senior House, the new class of seniors was settling in, jazzed about living together in a dorm rather than with host families. The house parents had been walking up and down the halls for hours, to keep them from getting too hysterical.

“So what did you get assigned this summer?” Sabronie asked her roommates.

Blynne looked at Diera, to deflect the question.

“Would you believe?” Diera said. “Nanny work. For the Crown Prince of Dalepri's girl, but still.”

 

( Missions Accomplished )

 

 

This is still pretty rough, and I know I don't quite have the tone for it yet, but I think it's going to be fun.