Documents of Tabat: Flowers of Tabat

This week sees the book getting officially launched on Wednesday. This week I’ll be doing a series of five posts about the interior art. Comment on a post to be entered to win one of three pieces of Near + Far jewelry; comment on all five posts and you’ll be entered five times.

Here’s the second row of pieces. I was talking to someone last night about why it made me so happy to use Mark’s art: he’s been showing it to me for close to two decades and I’ve always wanted to use it to illustrate something.

So, left to right: Image #1, which has a funky little seahorse feel. When looking at Mark’s pieces, I tended to use the older stuff for “Near” stories and newer for “Far”. This one went with VocoBox ™, an early story about what would happen if cats could talk. (And I think it’s fairly accurate in that regard.) My cat is named Raven, much like the cat in the story, and this is my way of preserving him, because he’s been a great cat. 🙂

Image #2 has a sparse feel to it, and there’s one of those funky little eyes peering out at you. It accompanies the story “Not Waving, Drowning” (a title shamelessly taken from Stevie Smith, because it’s so terrific), which is about the harder side of telepathy, which always seemed to me like a terrible, terrifying superpower.

Image #3 is another earlier one, and it makes me think of the idea of spaceships as living things. It accompanies RealFur, a story about the relationship between people and objects, a theme which gets explored in “Therapy Buddha” as well.

Image #4 accompanies a story that appeared in Talebones, “Memories of Moments, Bright As Falling Stars”. It’s a cypberpunk-influenced story, and one I like a lot for its grungy and sometimes eccentric world.

Image #5 also accompanies a story influenced by the cyberpunk movment, “10 New Metaphors for Cyberspace.” It’s a flash piece, or perhaps a prose poem, depending on your definition, trying to think about how we might have seen cyberspace if Gibson hadn’t shaped it so definitively.

If I picked a favorite from this batch, it would be either #2 or #5. We still haven’t seen the one that I have as a tattoo yet, or the one that I’m thinking about for a new tattoo. 😉

An Instructive Listing of the Major Gardens of Tabat, being Pamphlet #4 of the second series of “A Visitor’s Guide to Tabat,” Spinner Press, author unknown.

Despite the city’s fierce weather, the cliffs that shelter it on the northwest and western side create pockets of weather that allow its gardeners to coax fruit and flower that normally would not be found here. Additionally, the presence of the College of Mages ensures a perennial crop of young mages ready to earn their coin by turning it to a patron’s use, creating marvels like a moonlight garden whose flowers change aspect according to the positions of the three moons in the sky, as is rumored to be located in the center of the Moon Temples’ complex, unknown to any but their priests.

Accordingly those interested in the botanic, the scenic, or the complete experience of Tabat should allot time in their schedule for the following.

The Duke’s Gardens: Appended to the Ducal castle, the grounds are open to the public on even-numbered days and feast days but are always closed during the Games. Often select Beasts and animals from the Ducal menagerie are brought out for display. Cost is a silver ship per adult visitor, with children at five per ship. Hours are dawn till the seventh evening bell.

Tabat’s Heart: These vast gardens stretch through the middle of Tabat, cutting across all but the top and bottom terraces. Tram lines and staircases line the western edge, allowing access to the paths across as well as the many sub-gardens and fountains. Admission is free and the parks are always open, but are patrolled by mechanicals after midnight until the first morning bell.

The Sea Garden: Built into the western cliffs at the water’s edge is the Sea Garden, full of corals and in the summer tanks of sea creatures and Beasts, including singing Whales and Dolphins, and a display of venomous sea serpents. Admission is free in the winter and a copper ship throughout the rest of the year, with a discount for schools and educational groups. Hours are from the last night bell through the first evening bell. Open all days except Games.

The Gardens at the College of Mages: Filled with plants, animals, and Beasts collected from across the world, these gardens are renowned in scholarly and academic circles. Points of interest include the Fairy hive in their central hall, which also acts as museum, the caged Mandrakes, their Sphinx amid its xeric landscape, and the Hypnotic Garden, which features narcotic and soporific plants and animals and which can only be entered with a guide, who wears a white silk mask and is prepared to wake the visitor if he or she succumbs. Admission is a silver merchant for two, and includes chal in the Dancing Cup across the way from the College’s grounds.

Famous for their aromatic and ornamental plantings, the grounds of the Nettlepurse estate are open every Fifteenth Day. Cost is a Nettlepurse nought. Hours are the third morning bell through the midnight bell. Go in the spring in the evening to see the humming moths that are an all too brief yearly phenomenon or visit the Cypress Maze in order to view the reflecting pool in its center.

If you have additional time, we recommend the flowering tree groves of the Piskie Wood (to be visited only in the daylight hours, and wear bright clothing to avoid the Piskie hunters who practice their livelihood there.)

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Love the world of Tabat and want to spend longer in it? Check out Hearts of Tabat, the latest Tabat novel! Or get sneak peeks, behind the scenes looks, snippets of work in progres, and more via Cat’s Patreon.

• Hearts of Tabat on Amazon
• Hearts of Tabat on Baen Books
• Hearts of Tabat on B&N
• Hearts of Tabat on Kobo
• Hearts of Tabat on Powell’s
• Hearts of Tabat on Smashwords

#sfwapro