Clarion West Write-a-thon Progress: How Deep Is Red

As many know, I’m participating in this year’s Clarion West Write-a-thon. Last week I let people choose the title of the story I’d write for the write-a-thon’s first week, and the people’s choice was “How Deep Is Red”.

So here’s a chunk from this morning’s writing so far. The story will be the sequel to “Sugar”, which is available in Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight. If you’re interested in getting to see the whole story, then I invite you to support me in the Write-a-thon! I’ll be sending a weekly e-mail that will include the stories that I write for the Write-a-thon over its six-week course, so for a small donation, you’ll be getting what I’d like to think of as high quality fiction. 🙂

Laurana used a bowl of mercury to watch her lover’s battle. The thick, silvery liquid showed the ships from above, a fat-bellied Tabatian merchant, and the two pirate ships, lean-lined and fanged with cannon, converging on it from either side, the wind behind them making them race forward.

Tiny toy ships. The name of the merchant was Saffron Butterfly The pirate ships bore no names, only figureheads of women, one with a flaming skull for a head, the other with bracelets and necklaces of snakes. Flame’s Kiss and The Serpent.

The liquid didn’t transmit sound. For that Laurana relied on imagination: the deep-throated boom of the guns, the crash of cannon balls, the shouts of despair and defiance.

The Kiss neared the merchant. Laurana leaned forward, trying to find Cristina among the mass of pirates: some readying spidery hooks and ropes, others with hackbuts raised and aimed, all braced for collison, another sound dependent on Laurana, whose mind rendered it down to the taste of salt on one’s lips from the relentless wind, the crash louder than anything one had ever heard. There. A purple bandana tied across orange curls. Cristina, swinging herself aboard the pirates’ prey.

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Teaser: Someday My Prince

February 18, 2014

Picture of Cat Rambo with the Wicked Stepmother from Disney's Cinderella dinner — I will admit, my sympathy is often more with the wicked stepmother than Cinderella. The stepmother is by far the more interesting character.

Here’s a modern piece I’m working on right now, “Someday My Prince.” I believe it’s fantasy; I’m about 2000 words in so far, and really not sure whether it’ll stretch another 500 or 5000 words.

When Betty answered the apartment door, the man standing there was one of the most beautiful she’d ever seen. Tall, muscular, aquiline nose, dark hair”¦ he looked like he should be riding a white stallion on the beach in a cologne ad.

“Miss Vincent?” he said.

She faltered in the doorway, looking at him. You never know what to expect in New York, and surely this man wasn’t that out of the ordinary, except for the utterly expensive lines of his suit.

“Miss Vincent?” he repeated.

“I really need to get to work,” she said. “I don’t have time to buy anything.”

“You don’t understand,” he said. “I’m Aidan, your Prince.”

She didn’t understand.

He smiled at her. “I’m your Prince. I’ve come.”

She really did need to get to work.

***

Veronica said, “You say he’s a Prince?”

“I think that’s what he said. He wouldn’t go away until I promised to have dinner with him tonight.”

Veronica’s eyebrow lifted. “You could have called the police.”

“He was just so”¦nice,” Betty said.

Veronica’s other eyebrow lifted. “So are you going to tell him?”

“Of course,” Betty said. “Then he’ll know this is some kind of mix-up.”

***

On her daily phone call, her mother said, “You lucky, lucky girl!”

Betty tried to interject something but her mother went on. “I mean, we’re all promised that our prince will come some day, but most of them seem to get lost in transit. I don’t know anyone who’s actually gotten one.”

“Mom,” Betty said. “What do you mean, we’re all promised one? Who does the promising?”

There was a brief silence on the other end of the line. “Well,” her mother finally said, “I guess I don’t really know. The world? God? Yes, that’s probably it. God promises if we’re good, someday our prince will come.”

“I think you’re confusing God and fairy tales,” Betty told her.

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Free Fritz Leiber

October 19, 2012

In prepping for the WFC panel, I found there’s a bunch of Fritz Leiber stuff available free on the Kindle. Here’s some links for fellow Kindlers.

The Big Time
Bread Overhead
The Creature From Cleveland Depths
The Moon is Green
The Night of the Long Knives
No Great Magic
What’s He Doing In There?

Not free, but still well worthwhile at 99 cents:
The Big Time

I’ll be springing for the rest, probably: Conjure Wife and Our Lady of Darkness and all the rest. If you’ve never read Leiber, I heartily recommend him, and every sword and sorcery fan should be familiar with his Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser books.

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Clarion West Write-a-thon Progress: How Deep Is Red

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