What are the documents of Tabat? In an early version of the book, I had a number of interstitial pieces, each a document produced by the city: playbills, advertisements, guide book entries. They had to be cut but I kept them for web-use. I hope you enjoy this installment, but you’ll have to read Beasts of Tabat to get the full significance. -Cat
An Instructive Listing of the Notable Markets of Tabat, being Pamphlet #4 of the first series of “A Visitor’s Guide to Tabat,” Spinner Press, author unknown.
The Rain Market: To the north and east of Tabat lie the great marshes, half salt water, half fresh water. While the struggle to drain them and transform them into cropland presses on each year. The vast marshlands, a mix of salt and fresh water, seem unthreatened. The grasses that grow here are colored, like most of the marsh’s vegetation, by the purplish and green clays and minerals that underlie the marsh. Their pliant grasses colored lavender to dark purple and shades of olive, grow in abundance and are harvested for the purpose of making the tight-woven rain-gear that fills the Tabatian square known as the Rain Market.
Open come rain or sunshine, the Market sells, beyond its hats and shell-shaped overcoats of woven grass, baskets and other containers in whatever size or shape you might need. Bring the object there and they will weave a basket to hold it, from spiky pine-fruit to a glove shaped case from a wooden prosthetic hand of the sort the 12th Duke wore. Clatter chimes, lengths of hollow reed string on cording and meant to be hung from windowsills or bank tills to scare away sea-ghosts are sold here exclusively in this market in the shadow of the Slumpers.
Also near the Slumpers are the shops that sell its wares: tiles and china and porcelain goods. At the very edge of Rose Way is the complex of shops devoted to brownie wares: miniature dishes many use to coax brownies into their houses as well as other wares designed for smaller Beasts and animals.
Spice and Fish Square, only a block away from the main dock, supplies goods just unloaded from fishing and merchant ships,. The freshest sea fare can be found here and many vendors are prepared to cook your dinner on the spot. The air smells of brine and rot and smoke, and the nearby alleys are scattered with fragments of scales like silver spangles underfoot.
The Stable Markets are housed in what were once the city stables, since relocated to the northern edge of Tabat. Sitting on the fourth terrace, the building is filled with swarms of tiny shops selling this, that, and the other thing. Some stalls have existed here for generations while others are new traders, come with merchandise they want to dispose of quickly, if sometimes not cheaply.
The Midnight Market, located on the lowest terrace within sound of the sea, operates only from dusk to dawn, in the spaces that will be occupied by traders, merchants, and sailors during the day’s daylight hours. Anything and everything can be purchased here, and many of the vendors, as in the Stable Markets, are Beasts acting as representatives for Human masters.
***
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"(On the writing F&SF workshop) Wanted to crow and say thanks: the first story I wrote after taking your class was my very first sale. Coincidence? nah….thanks so much."
~K. Richardson
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Superhero Fiction
So here’s the list of fiction(ish) drawing on comic book super-hero trophes, generated here.
Novels:
Michael Bishop, COUNT GEIGER’S BLUES.
Michael Chabon, THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND CLAY.
Tom DeHaven, IT’S SUPERMAN!
Jennifer Estep, KARMA GIRL.
Minister Faust, FROM THE NOTEBOOKS OF DR. BRAIN.
Austin Grossman, SOON I WILL BE INVINCIBLE.
Jonathan Lethem, FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE.
George R.R. Martin, the WILD CARDS series.
James Maxey, NOBODY GETS THE GIRL.
Perry Moore, HERO.
Tim Pratt, THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF RANGERGIRL.
John Ridley, THOSE WHO WALK IN DARKNESS and WHAT FIRE CANNOT BURN.
StephSwainson, THE YEAR OF OUR WAR.
Short Stories:
Charles DeLint, “Bird Bones and Wood Ash”
A. M. Dellamonica, “Faces of Gemini”
Carol Emshwiller, “Grandma”
Jim Hines, “Sidekicked”
Jim Hines, “Stormcloud Rising”
Vylar Kaftan, “Blank Sezra”
James Maxey, “The Final Flight of the Blue Bee”
Tim Pratt, “Captain Fantasy and the Secret Masters”
Cat Rambo, “Acquainted with the Night”
Cat Rambo, “Ticktock Girl”
Benjamin Rosenbaum, “The Death Trap of Doctor Nefario”
Poetry:
Jeannine Hall Gailey, FEMALE COMIC BOOK SUPERHEROES
RAWR!This is a dauntingly long list of links, I know. It’s my handout for the Blogging and Social Networking 101 class, which is finishing up tomorrow, but I’ve added the links that I’ll be talking about in class while walking people through the basics of using social networks.
If you want an example of SEO in action, take a look at the links and the titles, since the majority of these were created by writers with an interest in SEO. Notice that most of the URLs are made of search friendly words, rather than numbers. Many of the titles take the form phrase:phrase, in order to maximize the keyword juiciness.
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RT @SFWAauthors: Cat Rambo: Documents of Tabat: The Markets of Tabat http://t.co/D8A4C9QQDN
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